1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to ophthalmic imaging apparatuses for observing or capturing images of the fundus of an eye to be examined, such as fundus cameras used in ophthalmological clinics, group health examinations, and the like, and further relates to control methods for such ophthalmic imaging apparatuses and storage medium.
2. Description of the Related Art
Fundus cameras that automatically execute alignment operations for aligning a fundus camera optical system with an eye to be examined and focus adjustment operations, in order to simplify those operations, have been proposed in the past (see Japanese Patent No. 3490796 and Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2005-160549).
Meanwhile, an ophthalmic imaging apparatus that has an autofocus function, an auto small pupil switching function, and an auto shoot function and that is capable of activating and deactivating these automatic functions individually has also been proposed (see Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2009-172157).
The fundus cameras disclosed in Japanese Patent No. 3490796 and Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2005-160549 are configured so that imaging processes are started when an imaging button is turned on, and then alignment adjustment, focus adjustment, and imaging are executed automatically, after which the processes end.
However, when capturing an image of a fundus, there are cases where an examiner changes the alignment state and the focus state based on the state of the eye to be examined after the alignment and focus have been automatically adjusted, and thus the fundus cameras disclosed in Japanese Patent No. 3490796 and Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2005-160549 have a problem in that these items cannot be changed because the imaging is carried out automatically.
As opposed to this, the ophthalmic imaging apparatus disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2009-172157 is configured so that the autofocus function and auto shoot function can be activated and deactivated individually, and thus it is possible for the examiner to adjust the alignment and the focus.
However, it is necessary to activate or deactivate the respective functions before imaging operations are started, and thus there is a problem in that once imaging operations have been commenced with the autofocus function and the auto shoot function active, those functions cannot be dynamically deactivated after judging the state of the eye to be examined from an observation image of that eye, whose image is to be captured.
The ophthalmic imaging apparatus disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2009-172157 is configured having pre-set conditions that deactivate the autofocus function and the auto shoot function operations, where the autofocus function and the auto shoot function are deactivated when those conditions are met; however, this configuration requires the conditions for deactivating the operations to be set in advance, and there is thus a problem in that the functions cannot be dynamically deactivated during imaging operations.
Meanwhile, when capturing an image of an eye to be examined that has opacity in the crystalline lens, such as with cataracts, the fundus of the eye to be examined is observed, a region in the fundus observation image free of cloudiness is searched out, and the focusing is completed through that region. With this type of operation, there is demand for the ability to manually change the focus region, but then execute an autofocus function in the region where focusing can be carried out.
However, Japanese Patent No. 3490796, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2005-160549, and Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2009-172157 have problems in that the autofocus function and the auto shoot function cannot be changed from inactive to active during imaging operations.
Accordingly, with conventional ophthalmic imaging apparatuses, it is difficult to carry out operations that meet an examiner's needs.